Delhi to host three-day wrestling championship next week

New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Sports Complex will play host to senior Asian freestyle, Greco Roman style and the female wrestling championships from May 12 to 16.

The event is being seen as a test case for the wrestling competition of the October 2010 Commonwealth Games.

It is one of the major tournaments of FILA in which top wrestlers from 21 countries will compete for top honors with each other.

“This is a major tournament of FILA; it is also opted as a test event for the Commonwealth Games 2010. As you are aware, Asia is a very strong continent in wrestling. In fact, 90 percent of medals in Olympics in wrestling come from Europe and Asia. We have excellent participants from 21 countries,” said G.S Mander, the president of the Wrestling Federation of India.

The 21 countries include all major wrestling nations like Iran, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Japan, Korea, China and Mongolia.

Several of the participants are medal winners of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and 2009 Senior World Wrestling Championship held in Denmark.

The competition will be held daily in the afternoon with preliminary rounds from 2:00 to 5:00 PM and medal rounds to decide Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medal winners from 7:00 to 9:00 PM.

Freestyle wrestling competitions will be held on May 12 and 13, while the female wrestling competition will take place on May 14. The Greco-Roman style competition will be held on May 15 and 16.